Word: operettas
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...most people, the mere mention of a Viennese operetta conjures up a waltz of post-Johann Strauss composers-Franz Lehar (The Merry Widow), Oskar Straus (The Chocolate Soldier), Emmerich Kalman (Countess Maritza). But beside their names belongs another: Robert Stolz. In his long career, Stolz has written almost as many operettas as the other three combined. Now 82. Stolz is the grand old man of operetta, the sole survivor of the golden age of popular Viennese music (1910-25). At Austria's open-air amphitheater on Lake Constance last week, Old Composer Stolz was still at work. Tall...
...Shore Music Circus explains both the nostalgia and the general ignorance of the plot. The plot may be safely catalogued as one of the weakest around which a musical comedy was ever devised. The remembered youth of a romantic lady serves as the vehicle for all the cliches of operetta. But somehow, in the whirling skirts of the dancers, in the intensely sentimental realization of the leading lady's romantic yearnings in the music, in the unreality of it all, Bittersweet remains at least in its best moments a memorable experience in the musical theatre...
After hearing her performance in Bittersweet, one hopes for a recording of the operetta by Miss Elias. A new recording would be welcome, since the only available version (on Angel) is marred by mannerisms on the part of several of the performers and generally weak casting. In Beverly, however, the show itself is on display for the rest of the week. If one wants to see a truly professional singing actress transcend the limitations of plot and work through a fine score to achieve a memorable evening in the musical theatre, than he had better go to see Miss Elias...
...importance of Pal Joey in the history of the American musical theatre derives from its being probably the most significant work to be produced in the tradition of realistic musical comedy. It was in this tradition that Rodgers and Hart did their best work, seldom diverging into the separate operetta tradition into which Rodgers moved after Hart's death led him into partnership with the operetta lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. Characteristics of the realistic musical comedy tradition, stemming from John Gay's Beggar's Opera and similar' works, include a selection of bouncy tunes that require no great vocal prowess...
...high spot of the production must be singled out, The performance of "The Flower Garden of My Heart" by Miss Lynn and the chorus and dancers offers one of the most hilarious and telling parodies of the conventions of romantic operetta that one is ever likely to see. It also serves to illustrate the sometimes very great distance between the romantic and the realistic forms in musical comedy. Pal Joey treats important problems with taste and even wisdom that one rarely finds in musical comedy. For this reason, the certainly very acceptable production at Framingham offers viewers a chance...